Caught in the Crossfire

Following in the footsteps of Pharrel and more recently Lupe Fiasco, The Pack are a sly hyphy crew that incorporate their passion for rollin’ on planks into their music. This single and surprise mainstream banger, ‘Vans’, see the Californian dudes in the hood spitting the praise of those, ever popular, waffle-soled shoes. Represent homeboy.

No tomfoolery here, the beat hits you straight up like a double shot of absinthe after brunch. A smooth, pulsing baseline that infiltrates those little muscles in the back of your neck, and like gentle peer pressure, makes it nod back and forth whether you like it or not. Lay that alongside solid rhymes with subtle, unique flow and you’ve got yourself a winner – luckily it’s released on download on December 4th.

It’s nice to see influence grabbed from the Beastie Boys present too, with what sounds like Stephen Hawking giving his best chipmunk impression in between each lyricist’s verse. Which, seriously, is catchier than a baseball glove. These dreds know what they’re doing and they do it hotter than the weather in CA.

Big heads up in Vans must be stoked on an advertisement like this, I may even go buy a fresh pair of old schools myself. ‘Vans’ is featured on The Pack’s upcoming EP “Skateboards 2 Scrapers“, which should be ready wrapped for crimbo time. Add it to your list kids!

The Pack have hooked up with Zoo York on this single. If you would like to win a package containing a deck, trousers and zipped jacket. Click here to enter.

Joe Moynihan

Deadline are among the hardest working punk bands in the UK, and if there’s any justice, ‘Take A Good Look’ will be the record to gain them some much-deserved recognition.

Songs like ‘Blood On Your Hands’ and ‘Keep On Running’ combine the melodic suss of NYC luminaries like Blondie and the Ramones with a hardcore edge reminiscent of The Business and other UK street-punk bands. There’s plenty of lush vocal harmonies, courtesy of singer Liz Rose, and overall, ‘Take A Good Look’ sounds like it could eat offerings from pop-punk lightweights like Paramore for breakfast.

Melodic enough to sing along to, but loud enough to kick up a decent-sized pit amongst any punk crowd worth their salt, it seems that this Deadline has well and truly arrived. Check out ‘Do You Think’ on the link above, and visit the band’s Myspace page at: www.myspace.com/deadlineuk for more tunes.

The band also have a couple of UK dates ahead of them before the end of the year:

Nov 25th – Great Yarmouth, Speedfreaks Ball
Dec 9th – London, Islington Academy